Contest for finding applications of satellite navigation is scouting for new ideas

The European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) which prize fund costs of 1 million euros is looking for new ideas. For the third time, the leaders of the Estonian idea competition Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol and Tartu Science Park have put out a prize of 5000 euros to help the winner develop their product and test the market.

„Satellite navigation system is essential for accurate and trustworthy positioning to guarantee the quality of their service for enterprises like Taxify, Waze, Milrem Robotics, Google Maps and so on. Applications like internet of things and connection between devices, unmanned vehicles, smart city and more use the positioning service as well,“ said the leader of the ESNC Estonian region, Andrus Kurvits from Tartu Science Park. „Most of everyday challenges can be solved by using data collected by satellites – accuracy and decrease of labor costs are only a few of the advantages.“

 „For Taxify, navigation is key both in the mobile app where the map is visually the most salient part, and in the part of the software which is invisible for people and where most of the work is done by using coordinates. Choosing the optimum route helps us offer a better, faster and cheaper service,“ stated the leader of the development team of Taxify Rain Johanson.

Every year, the contest has been an opportunity for more than 400 business ideas. Over 300 winners have received the prize throughout the years. This is only a small part of the 4000 ideas submitted by 11 500 participants who have found ways to put the possibilities of satellite navigation work for their enterprises.

The space incubation centres opened last autumn in Tallinn and Tartu are offering the winners of the idea contest an opportunity to continue developing their ideas in a special incubation programme. The programme is accompanied by a development support of 50 000 euros. Tartu observatory is one of the partners of the Tartu incubation centre.

Besides that, three enterprises get the opportunity to attend the ECNS acceleration programme E-GNSS Accelerator which is a unique chance for the enterprises and start-ups to make their idea huge. Overall, the size of the prize fund is over one million euros. The other prizes of the competition can be seen on ESNC Estonia’s website. 

“Space Oscars”, the festive award ceremony of ESNC and Copernicus Masters, takes place in Marseille, France on 4 December 2018. The grandiose event brings together the elite of the world’s space enterpreneurship, politics and research. It is an unique opportunity to present new ideas of using space data to experts of this field.

All enterprises, research institutes and student teams are welcome to submit their innovative business ideas of using the possibilities of the satellite navigation system on earth. For that, it is necessary to fill a simple form on ESNC’s website by July 31, 2018.